The 2012 Dealerscope Retail Excellence Award Winners

For the last few years we’ve been asking readers to provide nominations for our annual Retail Excellence Awards. Once again, they gave us some great suggestions, which we boiled down to BrandsMart, Newegg.com, Bjorn’s and Schaefer’s. Congratulations to this year’s class! Each of them, in their own way, has attracted the industry’s attention for their overall excellence in marketing, merchandising, store/site design and leadership.

We believe all of the retailers who were nominated deserve recognition. Throughout the year we’ll feature profiles on some of them in the magazine and on Dealerscope.com. We’ll also keep all of them in mind for next year’s big award. And make sure to nominate the retailer you think has excelled in important performance categories when we open up the voting process next spring on Dealerscope.com. We also like to hear about all CE retailers that are going above and beyond at any time during the year, so please let us know about them.

You’ll find profiles on this year’s winners in the following pages. Here’s what some of our readers told us about them.

“Ronnie Romero, Schaefer’s director of sales, has taken marketing the new store very seriously. Ronnie has been successful using Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to reach new clients in Lincoln, Neb. His messaging has resonated with the 24- to 35- year-old crowd, and has retained the company’s existing boomer clientele. Schaefer’s produced numerous educational videos on its website and in its TV spots. Time Warner now sports a “Schaefer’s Cable-On-Demand“ channel where customers can view over 500 videos that range from educational product-oriented features to how-to spots.”

“In addition to its physical expansion to Georgia, complete with an optimized field technician force, BrandsMart is extending its presence through increasing installations and Internet sales. Working with third-party administration partners, BrandsMart is able to back up Internet sales with the same commitment to service and installation as in its home market of Florida.

New sales programs, such as small electronics trade-in, and new offerings, like recycling and cutting-edge extended warranty and insurance protection, or online self-service scheduling and delivery tracking help BrandsMart not only weather the recent poor economic conditions, but survive to prove themselves as a retail and service example for the industry.”

In announcing this year’s inductees into the CE Hall of Fame, CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro said this about the group, which includes Bjorn Dybdahl, founder of Bjorn’s. “This elite group of leaders has laid the foundation that our industry continues to build upon. Their vision, drive to excel and enthusiasm have helped to create the innovative CE products and services that have improved the lives of consumers worldwide.” The statement nicely captures the passion Dybdahl brings to his customers through Bjorn’s. Ee couldn’t agree more.

“NewEgg.com’s ‘Take it from a Geek’ campaign turned NewEgg’s geek fans and community into brand ambassadors. The campaign was used throughout the busy back-to-school and holiday seasons, successfully elevating awareness of the NewEgg brand and largely contributing to the company increasing new visitor traffic by nearly 20% in 2011.”

Once again, congratulations to this year’s Retail Excellence Award winners!